Expansion of fast fixed-network Internet makes progress. (picture alliance/dpa)
The expansion of the fast Internet connections in the northern German state of North Rhine-Westphalia is making progress. Two thirds of households in the state can already access gigabit-capable networks, Andreas Pinkwart, the state's Minister of Economic Affairs and a member of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), said in Düsseldorf on Wednesday after a meeting with representatives of the Internet industry. "The coronavirus crisis has shown how important state-of-the-art broadband networks are for the economy and society."
Just over half of the schools in the state (51 percent) are already connected to the fast network, and work is underway for almost all other educational institutions (45 percent). According to the offical figures, the private sector in the state has invested 3.2 billion euros in the digital fixed network since 2018, while 1.1 billion euros in funding has come from the federal and state governments.
Vodafone has now made 4.8 million connections gigabit-capable, an increase of 0.3 million since mid-September. Gigabit-capable means that these households could sign a contract for a download speed of up to 1,000 megabits (1 gigabit) per second. It is not known how many households in the state have actually done this.
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